Comfort after a loved one passes on

Recently, I lost my dear sister, who was also my best friend. We had shared a very precious relationship and companionship. Naturally, this was a big adjustment in my life. But in meeting this challenge and healing any grief through prayer, I have found much comfort and guidance in Mary Baker Eddy’s words, “When the light of one friendship after another passes from earth to heaven, we kindle in place thereof the glow of some deathless reality” (Pulpit and Press, p. 5). 

Through study of the Bible and Mrs. Eddy’s writings, I have learned that the light loved ones bring into our life, illumining it with blessings and much joy, can never really be lost. It continues to shine because the light of good, which comes from God, is everlasting. Yes, those we love may no longer be personally present with us, but we can cherish the grateful memory of all the good they expressed—goodness that has its source in God and is therefore eternal. God is ever present and continuing to bless us.

Each time we think of those dear to us who are no longer here, we can be comforted by knowing that they are, in reality, gaining progressive views of life in and of God. And we, too, can gain those progressive views, right here and now. Our loved ones’ absence compels us to learn more about the real immortality of individual identity, its continuity and permanence. We can also learn that good is not personal; it is not confined to a human personality. Goodness can never be lost because it is a spiritual attribute of God and is forever reflected by each one of us as God’s infinite, spiritual ideas.

We reflect eternally the Life that is God.

If a dear friend or relative moves to a new neighborhood, city, or country, often that individual remains as “close” in our thoughts as when he or she lived nearby. The glow of this one’s individual identity is not dimmed by a change of physical location. Similarly, those who have passed from this realm of experience have only passed from our view to another state of consciousness and progress. The glow of their individuality lives on. 

Writing to a woman who had lost her husband, Mrs. Eddy said, “… as the Christian Scientist, the servant of God and man, he still lives, loves, labors” (The First Church of Christ, Scientist, and Miscellany, p. 295). We can be comforted by this knowledge for any of our loved ones: They still live on. I have found this truth comforting me and bringing the healing of grief over my sister’s passing. Christ Jesus declared, “Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be comforted” (Matthew 5:4). I have experienced comfort by learning through Christian Science that our true essence, or identity, is spiritual and not material, and that we reflect eternally the Life that is God.

Let us “kindle … the glow of some deathless reality” in our thought of all our loved ones, including those who have passed on. Grief does not have to overwhelm us when loved ones pass from our view; we can instead maintain a heartfelt gratitude for all the good they shared with us, knowing that they are continuing to experience that good in their new stage of progress. We can be confident that God, everlasting Love, is with them still, even as He is with us. As we grow spiritually in this understanding, we will no longer mourn but be truly comforted in our remembrance of them.